![\"Julietta](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/a71fd307f89f247f6dbdd0219a50ea87ccd43091.png\")
Save<\/p>\nSave<\/p>\n
You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n
Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n In the next few years, a private company plans to begin assembling a commercial space station in the Earth\u2019s orbit, the closest thing yet to a place where paying guests might one day check in and spend the night circling the planet. But before you picture cocktails by a panoramic window, it\u2019s worth adjusting your expectations.<\/p>\n The project in question is being developed by US company Axiom Space, which is building modules designed to attach to the International Space Station, before eventually forming a standalone commercial outpost. The first of those modules is expected to launch before 2030, with a fully independent station likely in the early 2030s.<\/p>\n That timeline makes it the most credible pathway yet towards what has long been described \u2013 perhaps prematurely \u2013 as a space hotel. But the reality is more complex.<\/p>\n Initially, the station won\u2019t function as a leisure destination, but as part-research facility, part-astronaut accommodation, with a small number of private missions layered in. Tourists will be present, but they will be rare, carefully managed, and paying extraordinary sums for the privilege.<\/p>\n The early era of space tourism is not shaping up to resemble a new branch of hospitality.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Traveller newsletter<\/p>\n The latest travel news, tips and inspiration delivered to your inbox. Sign up now.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cSpace tourism is not driven by the tourism industry,\u201d says Professor Marianna Sigala, director of the International Hotel School at the University of Newcastle. \u201cIt\u2019s driven by the space industry: research, military, exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n That helps explain why, despite a surge of excitement a decade ago, space tourism today feels like an aborted take-off.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you launch a new product, you have to create hype,\u201d Sigala says.<\/p>\n Through 2023 and into mid-2024, Virgin Galactic operated a series of suborbital flights, carrying passengers to the edge of space for a few minutes of weightlessness before returning to Earth. In June 2024, those flights paused as the company shifted focus to developing a new generation of spacecraft, with services now not expected to resume until later this year.<\/p>\n Other players have followed similarly stop-start trajectories, reflecting both the technical complexity of space flight and the limits of the current market.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was definitely media hype,\u201d Sigala says. \u201cBut the technology hasn\u2019t progressed as much as expected.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, space tourism has found its footing as something far more exclusive. Suborbital seats cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Orbital journeys \u2013 the kind required to reach a future space station \u2013 run into the tens of millions.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s too expensive to be a purely tourist venture,\u201d Sigala says. \u201cTourism is used to subsidise part of the cost.\u201d<\/p>\n At the same time, the companies driving these developments have shifted their priorities. Launching satellites, securing government contracts and building long-term infrastructure for missions beyond Earth are the real business. Tourism, while valuable, is secondary \u2013 a way of demonstrating capability rather than sustaining it.<\/p>\n For Sigala, that shift reflects a broader change in how the space race itself is being understood.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a race of who goes first any more,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s about who can make it work \u2013 who can go, return safely, and do something that is economically viable.\u201d<\/p>\n Even so, demand persists. Hundreds of would-be space tourists have already placed deposits, drawn by the promise of seeing Earth from above. But for now, the experience remains the preserve of a very small group.<\/p>\n For Australians, the opportunity may lie closer to home than orbit itself. While the country is unlikely to become a major space tourism operator, its geography makes it well suited to launch infrastructure and training.<\/p>\n \u201cWhoever is going to space will need to come to the country, prepare and train,\u201d Sigala says. \u201cThat\u2019s also part of space tourism.\u201d<\/p>\n So what does the future actually look like?<\/p>\n Not a sudden leap into orbital holidays, but a gradual build. Over the next decade, commercial space stations may begin to take shape. A handful of private travellers may spend short stays in orbit. The experience may become marginally more accessible \u2013 but not by much.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure it will happen,\u201d Sigala says. \u201cI just don\u2019t know how soon.\u201d<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Pack](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/f847fd1da37ddf6ea4e9db3cb110278387784f08.jpeg\")
Pack sunscreen. Lots of it. And an oxygen mask.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Julietta](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755313212_548_a71fd307f89f247f6dbdd0219a50ea87ccd43091.png\")
Julietta Jameson<\/a> is a freelance travel writer who would rather be in Rome, but her hometown Melbourne is a happy compromise.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63,128],"class_list":["post-784000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}